Amesbury kids, community team up for school 'Clean-up Palooza'

Thursday

Jun 12, 2014 at 5:23 PMJun 12, 2014 at 5:24 PM

By Carol Feingoldnewburyport@wickedlocal.com

Saturday, May 10, was not the ideal day for the annual Spring Clean-Up Palooza held at Amesbury High School and Amesbury Elementary. It poured, but the rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of the 30 AHS students and the half-dozen community members who showed up.AHS Principal Roy Hamond put out the call for a student group to help clean up the school grounds for the spring so the maintenance crew could begin mowing. AHS math teacher Susan Mroz took up the challenge and coordinated the Spring Clean-Up Palooza.AHS history teacher and Peer Leader advisor Susan Hanscom took six AHS Peer Leaders down to AES where they worked under the direction of AES technology teacher Bruce McBrien."We performed trimming, clearing and stair maintenance on our Woodland Nature Trail, readying it for use, weeded and cleaned up our gardens and all along the front of the school," McBrien said. Hanscom "and the students also collected all the trash around out playground and swept mulch back into the play area. All that, plus getting the hedges trimmed made a big difference."All of this despite the persistent drizzle and even the rain. I wish I had gotten a picture of them dancing when it poured."Meanwhile back at AHS, 30 students and six adults from the community raked, weeded, spread bark mulch, pruned, planted, edged and watered."We cleaned up all trash and swept and hosed off the walkways leaving the property as beautiful as we could," Mroz said. "Last year only 13 kids showed up. This year we had three times as many."Other pleasant surprises awaited her, too."Upon arriving at the school two new planters filled with annuals greeted me," she said. "I found out later that Ann Peterson's Recycling Club planted and put them out front. (AHS foreign language teacher and Interact Club advisor) Cheryl Basque with her group of students from her Interact Club was another happy sight. The tiger lilies, which our guidance councilor Mary Beth Exner dug out of her own garden last summer, had successfully survived the winter, which was another welcoming sight."It started raining at 8:30 a.m. and continued through most of the morning with an occasional downpour thrown in for good measure."They came in their raincoats," Mroz said. "They brought rakes and shovels and gloves and a good attitude. They were respectful, cooperative, kind, and just very helpful. It went great."Mroz came prepared with an assortment of corny gardening jokes to lighten the mood."What kind of plant grows on your face? Tulips.""Why do melons have elaborate weddings? ‘cause they can’t elope.""It was good, clean, muddy fun," Mroz said."After a couple of hours of standing in the rain and digging in the mud," Hanscom said, "everything is funny. I think one of the nicest things that came out of this was learning the value of community service, and it was fun to see kids who don’t normally interact with one another have fun together."AHS student Jake Doumanian didn’t mind the hard work."Landscaping is a lot of manual labor," he said, "and it requires constant attention to detail, but the receiver benefits from clean and pleasant grounds."AHS student Sierra Gibbas came away thinking of the Spring Clean-Up Palooza as a learning experience."It showed me how easy it was to change something ugly into something beautiful," Gibbas said. "I learned valuable lessons about gardening and we’re keeping the environment healthy."Area businesses got into the spirit, too, generously donating 95 bags of bark mulch, 12 roses, two azaleas, two forsythias, one magnolia tree, and four flats of annuals. Other local businesses supplied drinks, pizza, and ice cream sandwiches to feed the hard-working volunteers."These businesses made our happening a Palooza instead of just a clean-up," Mroz said. "From the bottom of our hearts we wish to thank the following: Pizza Factory, Amesbury Sports Park, Hodgies Ice Cream, Vermettes, Rogers Funeral Home, K-Mart Newburyport, Tokyo Joes, Lowes, Home Depot Seabrook, The Winner’s Circle, Stop & Shop, Tom’s Discount and Leo’s Super Bowl."Special thanks also go out to the AHS National Honor Society under the direction of Maggie Furlong, who also generously contributed monies for plants, and another special thank you to Amesbury Chevrolet for their promise of fall bulbs, a future beauty to look forward to.""The businesses were so good," Hanscom said, "even though they get asked again and again and again.""And they say ‘yes,’ just like the kids say ‘yes,’" Mroz said. "The kids live in Amesbury. When they take pride in their school and pride in their community they can flourish everywhere so like the plants.""They can blossom like the plants," Hanscom said.